Assessment 1: Professional Portfolio
You will develop and submit a professional portfolio that presents your creative work, skills, and professional identity in a format appropriate to your chosen career pathway. The portfolio should demonstrate how your creative practice, personal style, and technical skills align with professional expectations within the creative and cultural sectors. This assessment requires you to curate, organise, and present work effectively for professional contexts, supported by critical reflection on career direction, employability, and progression beyond undergraduate study. The portfolio may be presented in digital or physical formats, as appropriate to your discipline, and should evidence engagement with self-promotion, professional communication, and industry awareness.

Assessment 2: Industry Pitch or Funding Proposal
You will undertake a simulated professional task in the form of an industry pitch or funding proposal. This assessment requires you to communicate your creative ideas, professional goals, and value proposition clearly and persuasively to a defined audience, such as an employer, client, or funding body.

The assessment focuses on professional communication, enterprise awareness, and strategic decision-making, supporting confidence in articulating ideas within employment, freelance, or self-employment contexts. It enables you to demonstrate readiness for professional practice by responding to real-world expectations and sector conventions.

This assessment also requires you to critically reflect on your professional development, decision-making, and on how employability and enterprise concepts have informed your proposed work.

Option 1: Industry Pitch 8-10 Mins
Option 2: Funding Proposal 1800 words

Formative Assessment:
Midway formative feedback will be embedded within practical sessions, providing structured opportunities for feedback on work-in-progress to support student development and progression.

This module prepares you for professional life after graduation by:
- Strengthening your understanding of career pathways, enterprise opportunities, and the expectations of the creative and cultural sectors.
- Exploring how creative work, skills, and ideas can be communicated within professional contexts.
- Developing confidence in engaging with the wider landscape of employment, freelance work, self-employment, and postgraduate progression.
- Investigating professional contexts and identifying how your creative skills and personal style align with career opportunities.
- Reflecting on the knowledge, skills, and attributes needed to progress beyond undergraduate study.
- Examining approaches to self-promotion, portfolio development, networking, professional communication, and planning.
- Encouraging independence, critical thinking, and informed decision-making as you prepare for the next stage of your professional development.

1. Apply advanced communication skills to articulate a distinctive personal brand and professional identity.

Programme Learning Outcome: Communication

2. Critically evaluate and deploy digital tools to enhance professional practice and industry engagement

Programme Learning Outcome: Digital Literacy

3. Produce a portfolio or professional package suitable for employment, freelance work, or enterprise.

Programme Learning Outcome: Application & Problem Solving, Personal Development & Entrepreneurship

4. Reflect critically on your development needs and future learning opportunities.

Programme Learning Outcome: Personal Development & Entrepreneurship & Reflection

- Lectures
- Seminar discussions
- Tutorials
- Drop-in support sessions
- Group work
- Independent and self-directed learning
- Reflective practice

- Student Life https://www.youtube.com/@uniofstaffsstudentlife/videos
- University Careers https://staffs.careercentre.me/Members
- University Library https://libguides.staffs.ac.uk/library
- Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment will support this module where relevant
- Print Bureau

Burnett, W. and Evans, D. J. (2018) Designing your life: Build the perfect career, step by step. London: Vintage Books.

Branagan, A. (2017) The essential guide to business for artists and designers. 2nd edn. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Mosley, P. (2011) Make your creativity pay. [Place of publication unknown]: PSB Design & Print Consultants Ltd.

Humberstone, F. (2017) Brand brilliance: Elevate your brand, enchant your audience. [Place of publication unknown]: Copper Beech Press.

Volk, L. and Currier, D. (2020) No plastic sleeves: The complete portfolio and self-promotion guide. 3rd edn. New York: Routledge.

Where older texts are included, they are retained as foundational texts within the discipline, remaining relevant where no more recent equivalent texts are available.

In this module, you explore career pathways, enterprise opportunities, and the expectations of the creative and cultural sectors. You’ll learn how to communicate your ideas professionally, develop your portfolio, and build skills in networking, planning, and self-promotion. Through investigating different professional contexts, you’ll identify where your strengths and personal style fit within the wider landscape of employment, freelance work, or postgraduate progression. By the end, you’ll feel more confident, independent, and ready to take informed next steps towards your chosen creative career.